I had been told that proposal for the incinerator would come before the Planning Committee of Charnwood Borough Council, which it did, last Thursday, but only to discuss the response that we might give to the County Council. The decision rests with the County Council, who have not yet decided, and in any event they could be over ruled by Central Government, as Nottingham County Council were in connection with an incinerator proposal there.

The Environment Agency is asking for comments up the May 19th, and it will affect this area. You can find a copy of this letter here:

http://tinyurl.com/outwoods.

However the Planning Committee did consider the application and discussed the proposal.

Because of preparations for the election the committee was moved to the Victoria Room which needs an amplification system, and without it no-one could hear most of the debate, which is not good enough.
You may have seen the paper that was before us. It is public and can be found at http://tinyurl.com/2d8drmb.

The proposed response on the final page was totally inadequate.

Firstly I objected to the very short notice that Councillors had been given to look at all the papers submitted in relation to this proposal (and in relation to a proposal for  a wind turbine in Wanlip) The final batch were emailed on Wednesday afternoon, as I was about to go to John Storer House- see previous entry.

Then I argued that we should delete the reference to the Environmental Health Management Officer, since it only replicated the words of the Biffa application.

This was agreed.
Then I suggested that we should say to County that we objected to the proposal because it contravened CBC policies CT/2, CT/7 and EV/39. This was agreed.

I also said that our response should  commend the submission from Shepshed Town Council.

This was also agreed.

I was a fraught, tiring and  and difficult meeting. I know that Officers and Councillors were doing their best, but this very important debate was last on a very long  agenda, and the only member of the public in the audience was the reporter for the Echo

I do wish that we could have given it more publicity, and that more members of the public could have been there to hear what we had to say, and had been able to hear the debate if they were there.

I remain very concerned about the issue.

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